How to have a Statutory Demand (SD) set aside

There are many creditors who are issuing Statutory Demands (SD’s) inappropriately i.e. as a threat only and have no intention of going the whole route of making someone bankrupt. I have therefore set out a step by step guide to defending yourself from these types of threats.

Now in my job as a Process Server, I serve a lot of SD’s and people generally have a misconception that they can avoid or evade being served. This misconception clearly comes from the influence of American movies where you see the process server attempting to serve the person who refuses to receive it in their hands.

In England, it is generally impossible to evade service of a SD and if a person is being evasive then we simply send them a letter of appointment via 1st class post and serve them through alternate service i.e. by putting the SD through the person’s door or even leaving somewhere and informing the person of where it is and what is on it. Alternate service is just that, some other way of serving the document and I have known documents being served by publishing it in the local papers or taking out an advert. Once the SD is served, generally a statement of service is written and signed by the Process Server